On Sunday the world lost an acting legend, as Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine passed away at the age of 95.
For those of you who only know Borgnine as the voice of Mermaid Man from "Spongebob Squarepants," I feel a little sorry for you as Borgnine was so much more than a voice on a kid's cartoon.
In over six decades of work beginning in 1951, Borgnine managed to appear in a movie, television film, or television series almost every single year. (In fact Borgnine actually has another film coming out this year.) He was a veteran of classic films like The Dirty Dozen, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Poseidon Adventure. Never one to play it safe, Borgnine even appeared in unlikely films like John Carpenter's Escape from New York and Matt Parker and Trey Stone's (yes the creators of "South Park") BaseKetball.
Furthermore, Borgnine also appeared in two classic television shows separated by two decades. From 1962 to 1966 he played the lead role of Lt. Commander Quinton McHale in "McHale's Navy." From 1984 to 1987 he played opposite Jan Michael-Vincent as Dominic Santini in the classic 80s action drama "Airwolf." He was even nominated for a guest appearance Emmy award for a two episode arc on "ER."
While Borgnine is probably most noted for his Oscar winning turn as Marty Piletti in the 1955 film Marty, I'll always remember Borgnine for his role as Dutch in director Sam Peckinpah's classic 1969 Western The Wild Bunch.
I'd like to end this post with an interesting anecdote I heard about Borgnine the other day. Although he knew and was friendly with John Wayne for years, they never had a chance to work together. One day the two ran into each other and Wayne asked, "Ernie why the hell have you and I never gotten the chance to work together?" Quick as you please Borgnine responded back with "Because you never work with good actors." Wayne collapsed into spasms of laughter. But Borgnine was wrong in his assessment. He wasn't a good actor.
He was a great actor.
Rest in peace Ernest Borgnine.
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